IDC research shows that manufacturers worldwide are rapidly embracing new technologies to transform their business models and operations to improve agility, customer engagement, profit and sustainable competitive advantage. They are at the heart of the perfect storm, both living with and seeking to exploit, disruptive information technologies such as cloud, big data, AI-assisted analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT), while facing increasing IT security challenges, regulatory pressures and a changing workforce. In the face of new and disruptive competitors, they are changing their businesses radically to offer value-added services and leverage tightly linked ecosystems.